I really like how we learned to use Wordle at wordle.net to make the background text art toward the bottom of the digiscrapped page. It was so much fun to put in a bunch of writing, have wordle generate the text art, adjust the colors and font, and paste it onto the layout. All you have to do, then, is adjust the blend mode. I used "screen."

Sadly, though, I look at the barbeque grill in the photo, and realize how well into fall we are now, and days of grilling outdoors will soon be over :(.

As I type this, Scott is on a plane, flying over the Pacific, from Japan to Seattle! Can't wait to see him :)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I really should be posting a photo of the jacket I wore while traveling to Scrapfest! I drove to Minneapolis to meet my two sisters; they drove from Chicago. On the way, of course I had to stop for gas (liquid gold). I have no clue how I managed to do it, but picture putting your finger in the center of a drinking fountain to make the stream of liquid squirt backwards. That was me and the gas pump, and I was drenched (actually hair, shoes, shirt and jeans, as well as the jacket.) There wasn't much I could do, so I went through a drive-in for a hamburger!

You know, an innocent-looking unassuming hamburger. I didn't know it was a PROP for a Freddy 13th movie! One bite and it squishsplashed a bucket of ketchup down the front of my shirt. It was late, but I finally spotted a Target off the side of the interstate, with 15 minutes to closing. Fastest pair of jeans I ever bought! (I just didn't bring enough clothes with me in my luggage. Ha! You wouldn't have thought that from yesterday's photo, but SOMETHING had to make room for all that scrap/crap!)

I asked the check-out clerk to cut off the tags so I could change in the bathroom, and explained what had happened. She laughed and said, "I was wondering what that smell was!"

Before I get to the whipped cream, here's my sister Rina, at 2 am. Rina claims she is not much of a scrapper, but we corrupted her last year. She wouldn't go to bed! She was busy cutting and pasting at 2 am! We created a monster.

Friday night, we went to a "Crop Around Town" at the Archiver's in Apple Valley, from 6:30 pm to 12:30 am. The vendor for this one was K&Company and if you ever go to Scrapfest, don't go to theirs! They are particularly stingy with the supplies that are given out. They seem to use this event as their dumping ground for reject clearance items that don't sell. Unlike other vendors who use it as an opportunity to give away massive amounts of their products and preview the coming year's design lines. And their so-called "door prizes" are weird colored t-shirts advertising their stuff. (I suppose at this point, I should be more appreciative of clothing!)

MaryAnn is the most organized of we 4 sisters. Here she is with her GPS, trying to program in my son's apartment address. MaryAnn is the one we turn to when we're hopelessly turned around and lost in the mall. MaryAnn is the most organized Ultimate Mother to us Impaired Adults. (But I'm the oldest.) And SHE packs Oxydol in her luggage!

On the way home, it was ok to wear the jacket again; the gasoline smell had faded after 3 days in front of the fan in the cooling unit, and my shirt had been the primary victim of the ketchup. I stopped at a Barnes&Noble in Fargo for a pumpkin spice latter and the clerk shook up the whipped cream. Just like in some badly written movie, she dropped the whipped cream, and it was like a missile homing in on my blue jacket (and hair, and shirt and jeans.)!

They should have given me the latte for free, but I didn't think of that till later!

But I had an absolutely wonderful time with my sisters, and can't wait to go again for our 4th at Scrapfest '09. And we're hoping to talk our sister, Laurie, who's still a Scrapfest Virgin into coming to this next year.

ETA: OK, I admit it--I exaggerate somewhat about the ketchup, but not the gasoline or whipped cream!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

These two lovelies are my little sisters, Rina and Maryann. In this photo, they're meeting me by the elevator at the Country Inn Suites across from MOA --a nice enough hotel, except for the night clerk who rudely chastised us, thinking we were hurting his precious door by trying to open it to get in at night (as in "slide it open," not as in "use a crowbar on the damn thing".) Duh! What else would you do at a door at night after a Crop Around Town till 12:30am?

But I digress. Notice that huge pile of stuff on the cart? It's not luggage for all 3 of us. Just mine. And so is the camera bag, and the other little gray bag on the floor to the left. My sisters already had lugged their stuff to the room. Scrapfest is not a "travel-lite" event! It took me longer than my sisters to get to the hotel because I had to stop and buy more clothes at Target. . . after I managed to saturate my clothes with gasoline and ketchup. The whipped cream didn't come until the return trip.

I'll explain the gasoline and whipped cream later as I get chances to post more photos. I'm a little scattered these days because I'm also getting ready to go to Seattle! We're going to see my son, who's stopping off in Seattle as he's transferred from Japan to Virginia for his next Navy assignment.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I'm heading to Mall of America this evening to meet with two of my sisters. Yes, it's time for the annual Scrapfest!--the convergence of some 3000+ women with scissors on MOA in MPS. (Last year, I saw one guy. He was holding his wife's stuff for her.) This is the 3rd year I'm meeting my sisters, and they're driving from Chicago. We'll share a room (sans children, spouses, work) and play! It's like a gigantic girl scout jamboree for middle-aged women (and younger and older) for 3 days. My favorite part is the "Crop around Town" night, where we take over one of the Archivers stores in the Minneapolis area from 6:30 pm until 12:30 pm. One year, my sister and I somehow got lost in the parking lot at the end of night. I kid you not! The lights were out and we could not figure out what path to travel to get beyond those little concrete parking barriers to get out of the lot! And her GPS system was no help at all!

I hope to have some interesting details to relay about this. I'm just delighted I'll get to spend some time with my sisters. And! As icing on the cake, we'll also have dinner one night with Brian and Dianna.

I GET NO CREDIT FOR THE FOLLOWING PHOTO OR WRITING. It was e-mailed to me, and I just find it to be quite insightful on our human nature, and wanted to share it. Have a wonderful weekend!

The Wolves

Two Wolves One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Remember the book from a few years ago, "Who Moved My Cheese?" I never actually read the whole book, other than to read about 80% of it while standing in a Best Buy while waiting for a CD player to be installed in my son's car. The book was about change in our life, and that the "goodies" in our life can get moved at any time. Things can happen beyond our control.

There's any number of ways we can respond . . . . the usual snits, depression, defeatism. Or we can find other cheese.

When I look at these photos from Mexico, I can't help but think whistfully about my kids and miss them. My kids moved away; my "cheese" grew up!

But I seem to be acquiring new cheese! I'm finding all these new interests--and old--in my life. I'm really enjoying learning about photography. Digiscrapping and traditional scrapping are calling my name, sometimes more loudly than other times. In case you haven't noticed, I'm having a great time here on this blog, getting to write, posting photos, commenting on others', and our general conversational banter going back-and-forth through the comments. And then there's that persistent scuba diving siren luring me to water. . . It gets confusing at times, though, in figuring out how to balance it out with the other parts of my life--with family, work, church.

Oh, and about the turtles! I just like these photos I took in Mexico. And no, they're not really vehicles, but they sure are cute!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Sometimes when you listen to the rhetoric of this election, don't you find yourself wondering whether we're coming or going? Who knows anymore what's "image management" and marketing, and stuff we can trust.

Well, here's Doug, and it's not exactly clear whether HE's coming or going. But he sure is cute, and this old vehicle was at the East Grand Forks Heritage Days event.

I'm fond of "fiction" when it's a photoshopped photo, with a little color adjustment and defog. But that's it. Not when "fiction" is presented to us to manipulate us into voting for one party or another. So if anyone can come up with a good "defog" action to wade through the political mythology of this past week, let me know. In the meantime, I'm keeping my "bullshit" detector close at hand.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

These are some fountains in parks in Fargo, ND. I really like how different shutter speeds demonstrate how the speed affects the image of the water, freezes the action.

This first photo was shot at 1/15.

And the same photo now at 1/1600.

This photo was shot at 1/13th of a second.

And this one at 1/1600th of a second.

I've signed up for the Type + Writer class at jessicasprague.com. It's a 2 week class, starts next week, and am very excited about this! It's going to be both about typography (which I'm truly only minimally interested in; I read it as "interesting fonts"), and about writing/journaling.

It's the writing part that really appeals to me--the magic of words and the stories lurking in all of us! It's what I love about photography. . . the stories that are behind the images. These fountains are an example. . . to me, they're "pretty", and interesting visually and in terms of the shutter speed, but there's really no Story. (Although if I didn't have others with me, like children romping around, and there's only so much I can torture my poor husband. But maybe I really should have again used the tripod, had my remote with me, got my feet wet, and . . . . photographed explaining it to the police??????)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Doug decided to help me with a demonstration of shutter speed. These photos were shot at 1/400, demonstrating the immense, hurricane-like power of wind and the stop-action ability of the Nikon D40 at 1/400. As you'll see, Doug, undaunted, put a great deal of manly passion and herculean determination into this task.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Doug and I were sitting outside at a park, on a very windy day. I decided to set up my tripod, didn't have the remote with me, so raced back and forth for a photo. I had to delete a bunch of photos that chopped off my head. . . Next time I'll make sure I have the remote, and a day when the wind gusts are not between 20 and 30 miles per hour!

Another Fargo restaurant. We didn't eat at Space Aliens, but did eat inside this mediterranian restaurant, Santa Lucia. I did a goldenrod b&w conversion. Am looking forward to being back home, to GOOD internet connection! Pathetic, huh?